UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

AT    LOS  ANGELES 


TRIBUTE 


MASSACHUSETTS  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 


J  O  S  I  A  II     Q  IT  I  N  C  Y, 


JI-I.Y  14,  18G4. 


BOSTON: 

MASSACHUSETTS   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY. 
1864. 


BOSTON: 

I'lJINTED  BY  JOHN  WILSON  AND  SON, 
15,  WATER  STREET. 


QTJM3 


TRIBUTE. 


^H      AT  the  Stated  Meeting  of  the  MASSACHUSETTS  UISTO- 
<c  RICAL  SOCIETY,  held  at  their  Rooms,  on  Tremont  Street, 
£3  Thursday,  July  14,  1864,  after  some  preliminary  busi- 
ness, the   President,   the  Hon.   ROBERT   C.  WIXTHROP, 
spoke  as  follows :  — 

GENTLEMEN  OF  THE  MASSACHUSETTS  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY, 
m 

When  we  were  last  assembled  here,  at  our  stated  monthly 

, ,   meeting,  on  the  ninth  day  of  June,  our  Society,  for  the  first 

""*  time  since  its  institution  in  1791,  had  on  its  catalogue  just 

uj  a  hundred   names  of  living   members,  resident  within   the 

Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts.    An  election  at  the  previous 

meeting  in   May  had  at  length  completed  the  full  number 

allowed  by  our  charter ;  and  on  that  day  our  roll  was  full. 

y       At  the  head  of  that  roll  —  first  in  the  order  of  seniority, 

tta* 

_j  and  second,  certainly,  in  nothing  that  could  attract  interest, 

*  respect,  and  veneration  —  stood  the  name  of  one  who  had 

t   been  a  member  of  the  Society  during  sixty-eight  out  of  the 

seventy   years  of   our    corporate   existence;    who    had  wit- 

2  nessed  our  small  beginnings ;  who  had  been  associated  Avith 

Belknap  and   Sullivan  and  Tudor  and  Minot,  and  the  rest 

of  the  little  band  of  our  immediate  founders,  in  all  but  our 

very  earliest  proceedings  and  publications  ;  who  for  seventeen 

years,  long  past,  had  been. our  Treasurer,  and  had  repeatedly 

done  faithful  and  valuable  service  as  a  member  of  our  Execu- 


235078 


4  MASSACHUSETTS    HISTORICAL   SOCIETY. 

tive  and  of  our  Publishing  Committees  ;  whose  interest  in  our 
prosperity  and  welfare  had  known  no  suspension  or  abate- 
ment with  the  lapse  of  time;  who  had  contributed  liberally  to 
the  means  by  which  our  condition  had  of  late  been  so  largely 
improved,  and  our  accommodations  so  widely  extended;  and 
who  so  often,  during  the  very  last  years  of  his  eventful  and 
protracted  life,  had  lent  the  highest  interest  to  our  meetings 
by  his  venerable  presence,  and  by  his  earnest  and  impressive 
participation  in  our  discussions  and  doings. 

You  all  remember,  I  am  sure,  how  proudly  he  marshalled 
the  way  for  us  into  this  beautiful  Dowse  Library,  when  its 
folding-doors  were  first  thrown  open  seven  or  eight  years  ago, 
and  when  it  might  so  well  have  been  said  of  him,  — 

"  The  monumental  pomp  of  age 
Was  with  this  goodly  persomige; 
A  stature  undepressed  in  size, 
Unbent,  which  rather  seemed  to  rise, 
In  open  victory  o'er  the  weight 
Of  eighty  years,  to  loftier  height." 

You  all  remember  how  impressively  he  reminded  us,  not 
long  afterwards,  at  that  memorable  meeting  on  the  death  of 
our  lamented  Prescott,  that  he  became  a  member  of  this 
Society  the  very  year  in  which  that  illustrious  historian  was 
born. 

You  all  remember  how  playfully  he  observed,  a  few  years 
later,  when  seconding  the  nomination  of  the  late  Lord  Lynd- 
hurst  as  one  of  our  Honorary  Members,  that  the  same  nurse 
had  served  in  immediate  succession  for  the  infant  Copley  and 
himself,  and  that  she  must  certainly  have  given  them  both 
something  very  good  to  make  them  live  so  long. 

You  all  remember  how  pleasantly  he  recalled  to  us  that 
earliest  reminiscence  of  his  own  infancy,  when,  being  taken 
by  his  widowed  mother  out  of  Boston,  while  it  was  in  the 
joint  possession  of  the  British  army  and  of  a  pestilence  even 
more  formidable  than  any  army,  he  was  stopped  at  the  lines 


JOSIAH   QUINCY.  0 

to  be  smoked,  for  fear  he  might  communicate  contagion  to  the 
American  troops  who  were  besieging  the  town. 

You  have  not  forgotten  that  delightful  meeting  beneath  his 
own  hospitable  roof,  on  the  eighty-third  anniversary  of  the 
battle  of  Lexington,  —  the  guns  of  which  might  have  startled 
his  own  infant  slumbers,  —  when  he  read  to  us  so  many  inter- 
esting memoranda,  from  the  manuscript  diaries  of  his  patriot 
father,  in  regard  to  events  which  led  to  the  establishment  of 
our  National  Independence. 

Still  less  can  any  of  you  have  forgotten  his  personal  attend- 
ance here  only  a  few  months  since,  when,  with  an  evident 
consciousness  that  he  had  come  among  us  for  the  last  time,  he 
presented  to  us  several  most  interesting  and  valuable  histori- 
cal documents  —  at  this  moment  passing  through  the  press  — 
which  he  had  recently  observed  among  his  private  papers ; 
which  he  thought  might  possibly  have  come  into  his  possession 
as  one  of  our  Publishing  Committee  more  than  half  a  century 
ago ;  and  which,  with  the  scrupulous  exactness  which  charac- 
terized him  through  life,  he  desired  to  deliver  up  to  us  per- 
sonally, before  it  should  be  too  late  for  him  to  do  so. 

No  wonder,  my  friends,  that  we  always  welcomed  his  pres- 
ence here  with  such  eager  interest.  No  wonder  that  with  so 
much  pleasure  we  saw  him  seated,  from  time  to  time,  in 
yonder  Washington  chair,  hitherto  reserved  for  him  alone ; 
for  he  alone  of  our  number  had  ever  personally  seen  and 
known  that  "  foremost  man  of  all  this  world."  No  wonder  that 
we  cherished  his  name  with  so  much  pride  at  the  head  of  our 
roll,  as  an  historical  name,  linking  us,  by  its  associations  with 
the  living  as  well  as  with  the  dead,  to  the  heroic  period  of  our 
Revolutionary  struggle  ;  and  no  wonder,  certainly,  that  we  all 
feel  deeply  to-day,  when  we  are  assembled  to  receive  the 
official  announcement  of  his  death,  that  a  void  has  been 
created  in  our  ranks  and  in  our  hearts,  which  can  hardly  be 
filled. 


6  MASSACHUSETTS    HISTORICAL   SOCIETY. 

I  have  spoken  of  his  name  as  an  historical  name  ;  and  I 
need  hardly  say,  that  it  would  have  been  so,  even  had  it  been 
associated  with  no  other  career  than  his  own.  His  own  for- 
tunate and  remarkable  life,  —  embracing  the  whole  period  of 
our  existence  thus  far  as  a  nation,  and  covering  more  than  a 
third  of  the  time  since  the  earliest  colonial  settlement  of  New 
England,  —  a  life  crowded  with  the  most  varied  and  valuable 
public  service,  and  crowned  at  last  with  such  a  measure  of 
honor,  love,  and  reverence,  as  rarely  falls  to  the  lot  of  humani- 
ty,—  was  sufficient  in  itself  to  secure  for  him  an  historical 
celebrity,  even  while  he  still  lived.  But,  indeed,  his  name 
had  entered  into  history  while  he  was  yet  an  unconscious 
child.  In  a  letter  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  William  Gordon's,  dated  on 
the  26th  of  April,  1775,  and  contained  in  his  contemporaneous 
"  History  of  the  Rise,  Progress,  and  Establishment  of  the  Inde- 
pendence -of  America,"  will  be  found  the  following  passage :  — 

"My  friend  Quincy  has  sacrificed  his  life  for  the  sake  of  his  coun- 
try. The  ship  in  which  he  sailed  arrived  at  Cape  Ann  within  these 
two  days ;  but  he  lived  not  to  get  on  shore,  or  to  hear  and  triumph  at 
the  account  of  the  success  of  the  Lexington  engagement.  His  remains 
will  be  honorably  interred  by  his  relations.  Let  him  be  numbered 
with  the  patriotic  heroes  who  fall  in  the  cause  of  Liberty,  and  let  his 
memory  be  dear  to  posterity.  Let  his  only  surviving  child,  a  son  of 
about  three  years,  live  to  possess  his  noble  virtues,  and  to  transmit  his 
name  down  to  future  generations." 

Nor  can  we  fail  to  recall,  in  this  connection,  those  most 
remarkable  words  in  the  last  will  and  testament  of  that 
patriot  father,  whose  career  was  as  brilliant  as  it  was  brief, 
and  whose  premature  death  was  among  the  severest  losses  of 
our  early  Revolutionary  period :  — 

44 1  give  to  my  son,  when  he  shall  arrive  to  the  age  of  fifteen 
years,  Algernon  Sidney's  Works,  John  Locke's  Works,  Lord  Bacon's 
Works,  Gordon's  Tacitus,  and  Cato's  Letters.  May  the  spirit  of 
Liberty  rest  upon  him  !  " 


JOSIAH    QUINCY.  7 

Such  was  the  introduction  to  history  of  him  whose  life  is 
just  closed.  Such  were  the  utterances  in  regard  to  him  while 
he  was  yet  but  of  infant  years.  How  rarely  is  it  vouchsafed 
to  any  one  to  fulfil  such  hopes  and  expectations !  Yet,  now 
that  he  has  left  us  at  almost  a  patriarch's  age,  these  words  seem 
to  have  been  prophetic  of  the  career  which  awaited  him ;  and 
we  could  hardly  find  a  juster  or  a  more  enviable  inscription 
for  his  monument  than  to  say  that  "  he  lived  to  possess  the 
noble  virtues  of  his  father,  and  to  transmit  his  name  down  to 
future  generations,"  and  that  "  the  spirit  of  Liberty  rested 
upon  him." 

It  is  not  for  me,  however,  gentlemen,  to  attempt  even  a 
sketch  of  the  career  or  character  of  our  departed  associate 
and  friend.  I  have  indeed  been  permitted  to  know  him  for 
many  years  past,  as  intimately,  perhaps,  as  the  difference  of 
our  ages  would  allow.  As  I  attended  his  remains  a  few  days 
since  as  one  of  the  pall-bearers,  —  a  distinction  which  was 
assigned  me  as  your  President,  —  I  could  not  forget  how  often 
at  least  forty  years  before,  when  he  was  the  next-door  neigh- 
bor of  my  father's  family,  I  had  walked  along  with  him,  hand 
in  hand,  of  a  summer  or  a  winter  morning,  —  he  on  his  way  to. 
the  City  Hall  as  the  honored  Mayor  of  Boston  ;  and  I,  as  a  boy, 
to  the  Public  Latin  School  just  opposite.  From  that  time  to 
this  I  have  enjoyed  his  acquaintance  and  his  friendship,  and 
have  counted  them  among  the  cherished  privileges  of  my  life. 
But  there  are  those  of  our  number,  and  some  of  them  present 
with  us  to-day,  who  have  been  associated  with  him,  as  I  have 
never  been,  in  more  than  one  of  his  varied  public  employ- 
ments, and  who  can  bear  personal  testimony  to  the  fidelity 
and  ability  with  which  he  discharged  them. 

We  may  look  in  vain,  it  is  true,  for  any  of  the  personal 
associates  of  his  early  career  as  a  statesman.  He  had  out- 
lived almost  all  the  contemporaries  of  his  long  and  brilliant 
service  in  our  State  and  National  Legislatures.  But  asso- 


8  MASSACHUSETTS   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY. 

ciates  and  witnesses  are  still  left  of  his  vigorous  and  most 
successful  administration  of  our  municipal  affairs,  and  of  his 
faithful  and  devoted  labors  for  sixteen  years  as  President  of 
our  beloved  University.  Meantime,  the  evidences  of  his  lite- 
rary and  intellectual  accomplishments  are  familiar  to  us  all,  in 
his  Historj'  of  the  University,  in  his  History  of  the  Athenaeum, 
in  his  Municipal  History  of  Boston,  in  his  Biographies  of  his 
ever-honored  father,  and  of  his  illustrious  friend  and  kinsman, 
John  Quincy  Adams,  and  in  so  many  speeches,  addresses,  and 
essays,  upon  almost  every  variety  of  topic,  historical,  political, 
literary,  social,  and  moral. 

We  may  follow  him  back,  indeed,  to  the  day  when  he  was 
graduated  with  the  highest  honors  at  the  University  of  which 
he  lived  to  be  the  oldest  alumnus ;  and  we  shall  never  find 
him  idle  or  unemployed,  nor  ever  fail  to  trace  him  by  some 
earnest  word  or  some  energetic  act.  Everywhere  we  shall 
see  him  a  man  of  untiring  industry,  of  spotless  integrity,  of 
practical  ability  and  sagacity,  of  the  boldest  independence  and 
sturdiest  self-reliance ;  a  man  of  laborious  investigation  as 
well  as  of  prompt  action,  with  a  ready  pen  and  an  eloquent 
tongue  for  defending  and  advocating  whatever  cause  he 
espoused,  and  whatever  policy  he  adopted.  Even  those  who 
may  have  differed  from  him  —  as  not  a  few,  perhaps,  did  — 
as  to  some  of  his  earlier  or  of  his  later  views  of  public  affairs, 
could  never  help  admiring  the  earnest  enthusiasm  of  his 
character,  and  the  unflinching  courage  with  M'hich  he  clung 
to  his  own  deliberate  convictions  of  duty.  Nor  could  any 
one  ever  doubt  that  a  sincere  and  ardent  love  of  his  country 
and  of  his  fellow-men,  of  political  and  of  human  liberty,  was 
the  ruling  passion  of  his  heart. 

And  seldom,  certainly,  has  there  been  witnessed  among  us 
a  more  charming  picture  of  a  serene  and  honored  old  age  than 
that  which  he  has  presented  during  the  last  few  years. 
Patient  under  the  weight  of  personal  infirmities;  hopeful  in 


JOSIAH  QUINCY. 

the  face  of  public  dangers  and  calamities ;  full  of  delightful 
reminiscences  of  the  past,  and  taking  an  eager  interest  in 
whatever  might  promote  the  welfare  of  the  present ;  grateful 
to  God  for  a  long  and  happy  life,  and  ready  to  remain  or 
depart  as  it  might  please  Him, —  he  seemed,  so  far  as  human 
judgment  might  presume  to  pronounce,  to  have  attained  a 
full  measure  of  that  wisdom  of  which  it  is  written,  "  Length 
of  days  is  in  her  right  hand ;  and,  in  her  left,  riches  and 
honor." 

Not  many  years  ago,  he  prepared  an  agricultural  Essay, 
which  is  now  on  our  table.  Not  many  months  ago,  and  when 
he  was  on  the  eve  of  his  ninety-second  birthday,  I  met  him  at 
the  Cambridge  Observatory,  coming  to  visit  the  institution 
which  had  been  a  special  object  of  his  interest  and  of  his 
bounty,  and  to  take  a  last  look,  as  he  said,  at  the  great 
revealer  of  the  stars.  Still  later,  I  found  him  in  his  own 
library,  reading  Thucydides,  and  applying  the  matchless 
periods  of  Pericles  to  the  dangers  of  our  dear  land,  and  to  the 
heroic  deaths  of  so  many  of  our  brave  young  men.  Nothing 
seemed  wanting  to  complete  the  picture  of  such  an  old  age 
as  was  described  by  the  great  Roman  orator,  and  exemplified 
by  the  great  Roman  censor.  Nor  would  it  be  easy  to  find 
a  better  illustration  than  his  last  years  afforded  of  those 
exquisite  words  in  which  the  great  poet  of  the  English  lakes 
has  translated  and  expanded  one  of  the  most  striking  passages 
of  that  consummate  essay  of  Cicero :  — 

"Rightly  it  is  said 

That  man  descends  into  the  vale  of  years; 
Yet  have  I  thought  that  we  might  also  speak, 
And  not  presumptuously,  I  trust,  of  age 
As  of  a  final  EMINENCE;  though  bare 
In  aspect  and  forbidding,  yet  a  point 
On  which  'tis  not  impossible  to  sit 
In  awful  sovereignty;  a  place  of  power, 
A  throne,  that  may  be  likened  unto  his, 
Who,  in  some  placid  day  of  summer,  looks 
Down  from  a  mountain-top." 


10  MASSACHUSETTS   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY. 

It  only  remains  for  me,  gentlemen,  to  call  your  attention  to 
the  resolutions  of  your  Standing  Committee,  which  will  be 
reported  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Ellis. 

Dr.  ELLIS,  from  the  Standing  Committee,  offered  the 
following  resolutions :  — 

JResolved,  That,  in  the  death  of  Josiah  Quincy,  —  whose  name  has 
stood  on  our  roll  sixty-eight  years,  and  for  the  last  seventeen  years 
has  led  the  list  of  our  members,  —  this  Society  shares  in  an  especial 
manner  in  the  feelings  which  have  heen  manifested  through  our  whole 
community.  We  honored  him  for  the  highest  private  virtues,  and  for 
very  many  services  to  the  public  in  the  long  succession  and  the  large 
variety  of  the  offices  which  he  filled,  and  the  trusts  which  he  dis- 
charged. We  recognized  in  him  a  combination  of  the  noblest  prin- 
ciples which  we  venerate  in  the  fathers  of  the  Commonwealth,  and 
the  elder  patriots  of  the  land  who  were  also  his  friends.  His  lofty 
integrity,  his  large  and  wise  public  spirit,  the  utility  of  his  enterprises, 
and  the  practical  benefits  which  are  now  enjoyed  by  us  as  their  results, 
will  assure  to  his  name  and  memory  enduring  honors. 

Resolved,  That  the  President  be  requested  to  name  one  of  our  asso- 
ciates to  prepare  the  usual  Memoir. 

Dr.  Ellis  then  spoke  as  follows :  — 

The  members  of  this  Society,  representing  all  the  interests 
and  pursuits  of  our  higher  social,  civil,  and  literary  elements, 
may  heartily  engage  in  this  sincere  tribute  to  the  honored  and 
venerated  Nestor  of  our  fellowship.  He  was  the  object  of 
our  common  regard,  and  that  of  no  ordinary  sort  or  measure- 
ment. We  loved  to  see  him  in  these  halls,  if  only  as  a  silent 
listener ;  feeling  that  he  helped  us  largely  to  realize  history, 
and  to  connect  the  years  that  are  gone  by  their  best  memories 
and  virtues  with  our  own  living  days.  We  loved  more  to 
hear  his  firm  voice,  as  he  stood  erect  under  his  burden  of 
years,  assuring  to  us  an  unchanging  individual  identity.  We 
waited  upon  his  always  authentic  and  instructive  utterances, 
whether  from  the  stores  of  a  faithful  memory,  or  from  those 


JOSIAH   QUINCY.  11 

almost  printed  manuscripts  on  which  he  had  inscribed  the 
terse  matter,  brief  and  full,  which  he  had  to  communicate. 
Now  that  his  own  lips  are  closed,  and  we  can  no  longer  hold 
that  delightful  converse  with  him  in  which  he  made  the  men 
and  the  events  of  the  two  generations  behind  us  to  live  with 
all  their  glow  of  vitality,  we  must  look  to  books  to  tell  us 
what  was  his  own  place  and  influence  among  them.  He  has 
told  many  of  us  his  first  recollection  —  a  memory  that  might 
well  stamp  itself  deep  and  strong  —  of  his  looking  out  from  a 
carriage  on  the  British  redcoats  at  their  lines  on  Roxbury  Neck, 
a  child  of  three  years,  when  his  mother,  the  widow  of  his  patriot 
father,  was  among  the  last  allowed  to  leave  this  then  beleag- 
uered town.  He  has  prepared  with  his  own  pen  the  full  auto- 
biographic record  of  that  part  of  his  life  which  covers  his 
political  career,  with  its  antagonisms,  its  sharp  party  strifes, 
its  sympathies  and  antipathies  for  the  soul  of  a  good  and  true 
man.  His  own  individuality  in  forming  and  holding  to  a  con- 
viction, of  which  the  younger  of  us  are  not  uninformed,  stands 
attested  on  the  records  alike  of  the  National  and  State  Legis- 
lature, where  he  is  found  in  each  place  voting  in  a  minority  of 
one.  Let  us  hope  that  we  shall  not  have  over  long  to  wait  for 
the  full  memorial  of  him  from  the  most  fitting  hands  and 
the  closest  confidential  trust  to  which  he  committed  all  his 
private  papers.  We  may  assure  ourselves,  that,  even  when 
those  papers  deal  with  what  is  antiquated  to  us,  it  will  be 
in  a  way  which  will  renew  in  them  the  fire  and  the  vigor  of 
life. 

Besides  a  large  number  of  pamphlets,  Mr.  Quincy  has  con- 
tributed to  our  shelves  seven  substantial  volumes  of  biography 
and  history,  the  subjects  of  which  cover  the  career  of  some 
of  his  own  contemporaries,  or  relate  the  annals  and  fortunes  of 
institutions  in  which  he  himself  held  conspicuous  trusts,  and 
for  which  he  did  eminent  service. 

His  long  life  was  led  through  times  and  events  of  moment- 


12  MASSACHUSETTS   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY. 

ous  interest,  beginning  and  ending  at  revolutionary  epochs, 
divided  by  nearly  a  century  of  years.  His  associates  and 
correspondents  all  through  his  career  were  men  of  eminence, 
of  place,  and  of  high  personal  qualities.  He  was  himself  the 
equal  of  the  best  and  ablest  of  them.  The  qualities  of  those 
times  entered  almost  into  his  composition  and  organization ; 
they  wholly  controlled  and  exercised  the  development  of 
his  character  and  the  direction  of  his  life  ;  and,  while  we  share 
this  common  interest  in  him  and  in  his  career,  there  is  hardly 
a  member  of  this  Society  but  had  some  special  relationship  of 
acquaintance  or  obligation  with  him,  in  his  own  private,  pro- 
fessional, social,  or  civ-il  range.  Mr.  Quincy  held  a  succession 
of  offices  which  gave  him  more  than  a  functional  headship  over 
each  of  the  learned  professions,  and  a  magisterial  or  advisory 
supervision  of  the  various  and  most  heterogeneous  practical 
affairs  of  society.  It  is  for  that  variety  of  service,  performed 
uniformly  with  rare  fidelity  and  with  consummate  ability,  leav- 
ing permanent  helps  and  advanced  positions  for  all  his 
successors,  that  we  must  speak  of  him  with  admiration  and 
gratitude. 

There  is  a  stage  or  period  in  the  development  of  every 
institution  and  organization,  of  progressive  possibilities  and 
capacities,  when  it  needs  the  quickening  or  restorative  skill 
of  a  man  of  practical  energy,  independent  spirit,  and  firm  will. 
One  of  the  most  characteristic  distinctions  of  Mr.  Quincy  was 
his  fitness  for  the  successive  offices  which  he  filled  at  the  time 
when  he  entered  upon  them,  and  in  the  condition  in  which  he 
found  them.  Critical  and  exciting  were  the  demands  and  the 
responsibilities  attending  respectively  the  Chief  Magistracy 
of  this  city  and  the  Presidency  of  the  College,  when  he 
assumed  those  trusts.  He  found  city  and  college  alike  in 
transition  states,  from  old  methods,  limited  purposes,  restricted 
means,  inconveniences  and  embarrassments,  to  more  expan- 
sive, generous,  and  comprehensive  possibilities,  to  the  attain- 


JOSIAH  QUINCY.  13 

ment  of  which  they  needed  the  foresight  of  a  large  directing 
mind,  and  the  guidance  of  an  independent  and  bold  spirit. 

This  city  is  deeply  indebted  to  Mr.  Quincy  for  many  of  those 
admirable  elements  in  its  works  of  utility,  its  institutions,  and 
its  present  principles  of  municipal  administration,  our  own 
pride  in  which  finds  its  full  warrant  in  the  encomiums  they 
have  received  from  over  our  whole  land  and  from  abroad. 
Its  streets,  market,  schools,  and  other  public  edifices,  testify 
that  while  he  was  providing  wisely,  though  some  thought 
rashly,  for  what  to  him  was  the  present,  he  had  in  view  the 
much  larger  demands  —  we  all  know  now  how  reasonable  and 
moderate  the  provision  for  them  —  of  a  near  future.  Some- 
times his  schemes  and  plans  were  devised  and  pursued  by  his 
own  fertility  of  faculty,  under  his  own  sole  advocacy  and  reso- 
lute persistency  of  purpose.  Sometimes  he  had  the  sympathy 
and  co-operation  of  a  few  strong  and  wise  supporters  against 
sharp  opposition  from  prominent  individuals  or  a  popular 
party.  I  never  heard  that  in  this  office,  or,  indeed,  in  any 
other,  he  ever  gave  over  any  purpose  or  aim  which  he  had 
proposed ;  nor  can  I  recall  a  case  in  which  any  successor  of 
his  has  undone  his  work.  He  loved  what  is  good  in  popular- 
ity, and  was  utterly  indifferent  to  the  other  ingredients  of  it ; 
being  quite  an  independent  judge  as  to  what  constituted  those 
respective  elements  of  popularity.  Of  course,  a  man  of  his 
always  rigidly  upright,  often  stern,  and  sometimes  severe 
spirit  in  the  works  of  reform  and  improvement,  especially 
those  into  which  he  threw  the  most  of  his  own  earnestness 
and  pride  as  their  originator,  would  be  sure  to  meet  many 
opponents.  His  opponents  might  also  become  his  personal 
enemies,  —  a  condition,  however,  contingent  on  his  own  feel- 
ing or  judgment  as  to  whether  he  should  or  should  not  so 
regard  them.  The  younger  portion  of  us  are  told  of  his  ardor, 
his  impetuosity,  his  severity  of  sarcasm  and  rebuke,  in  old 
political  strifes.  We  are  the  rather  prepared  to  believe  this, 


14  MASSACHUSETTS   HISTORICAL    SOCIETY. 

when,  besides  assuring  ourselves,  that,  in  his  earlier  life,  men 
and  measures  engaged  his  attention  which  were  likely  to 
require  just  such  treatment  from  a  rnau  of  his  rectitude  and 
independence,  we  call  before  us  his  looks  and  tones  as  at 
times  we  have  seen  and  heard  him.  He  was  compacted  of 
Roman  and  Puritan  virtues,  allowing  for  the  two  meanings  of 
virtue  as  preceded  by  either  or  both  those  epithets.  He  was 
able  to  stand  the  brunt  of  all  the  opposition  which  he 
provoked.  He  stood  so  clear  of  all  imputations  of  sinister 
or  selfish  purpose,  that,  when  his  schemes  and  enterprises 
were  challenged,  he  could  give  his  whole  advocacy  to  them, 
without  any  incidental  effort  for  self-defence.  He  saw 
some  stormy  days,  and  was  himself  the  subject  of  occasional 
hostility.  He  had  to  read  the  Riot  Act,  and  to  hear  an  angry 
mob  surging  threateningly  near  his  own  dwelling.  The 
second  line  of  an  ode  of  his  favorite  Roman  poet —  Ciuium 
ardor  prava  jubentium  —  must  often  have  come  to  his  lips, 
though  not  without  generous  variations  for  the  word  prava. 
But  none  of  those  citizens  would  have  disputed  to  him  the 
application  of  the  whole  of  the  first  line,  Justum  et  tenacem 
propositi  virum;  though  they  might  have  preferred  to  empha- 
size the  Tenax  propositi. 

Having,  after  six  years  of  this  city  service,  declined  to  be 
a  candidate  for  re-election  as  Mayor,  he  was  ready  for  quite 
another  sphere  in  the  College,  which  was  also  in  a  condition 
to  require  wise  and  energetic  oversight.  He  began  there,  as 
he  began  everywhere,  by  acquainting  himself  with  facts  and 
phenomena,  faults,  needed  changes,  improvements,  and  the 
way  and  means  for  them.  He  put  things  to  rights.  He 
asserted  his  headship.  He  renewed,  invigorated,  expanded, 
enriched  every  old  department  of  the  University,  and  added 
largely  to  its  scope  and  resources.  He  sometimes  stood 
between  the  students  and  the  authorities.  He  always  stood 
over  the  students,  —  harsh  arid  imperious  occasionally  in 


JOSIAH   QUINCY.  15 

word  and  aspect,  faithful  and  friendly  in  counsel  and  feeling. 
They  generally  found  out  that  the  condition  for  respecting 
him  was  to  understand  him,  and  that  the  condition  for  loving 
him  was  to  have  no  reason  for  being  afraid  of  him.  There  are 
men  doing  noble  service  in  all  the  professions  around  us,  whose 
charges  were  borne  by  his  private  benevolence,  while  their 
spirits  were  cheered  by  his  rallying  encouragement.  The 
question,  I  remember,  was  often  discussed,  whether  he  had 
real  strong  sympathies  for  young  men,  —  could  deal  with 
them  by  wise  allowances  and  gentle  tolerances.  Some  said, 
that  having  striven  with  politicians,  and  presided  over  boards 
of  aldermen  and  councilmen,  and  disciplined  a  fire  and  a 
police  department,  he  sometimes  confused  the  situation,  and 
mistook  his  measures  in  his  academic  sphere.  Candor  and 
justice  will  be  satisfied  with  the  judgment,  that,  while  there 
might  have  been  reason  for  raising  the  question, —  which,  in 
fact,  was  one  likely  to  suggest  itself,  —  there  was  no  reason  for 
deciding  the  question  in  the  slightest  degree  unfavorably  to 
the  fitness,  the  grace,  or  the  conspicuous  success,  of  his  admin- 
istration of  the  College.  The  living  alumni  of  his  sixteen 
classes  will  not  fail  of  bearing  some  form  of  testimony  to  this. 
It  was  characteristic  of  him  that  he  should  have  written  the 
History  of  the  College  down  to  his  own  time.  The  continua- 
tion of  it  will  have  a  good  start  from  him.  Those  beautiful  ap- 
pearances of  his  of  late  years  on  its  public  days  have  been  the 
joy  of  its  alumni,  and  have  drawn  glorious  tributes  to  him. 
Nor  can  one  forget,  in  connection  with  his  life  at  Cambridge, 
the  generous  and  refined  hospitalities  of  his  home,  discharged 
with  such  grace  and  dignity  by  that  admirable  lady  who  filled 
out  the  ideal  of  the  old-school  refinement  and  accomplish- 
ment. 

We  are  sometimes  helped  to  a  knowledge  of  a  man's  excel- 
lences by  observing  in  him  some  of  those  characteristics  which 
are  called  prejudices.  One  of  those  convictions  held  by  Mr. 


16  MASSACHUSETTS   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY. 

Quincy  was,  that  it  was  an  injury  to  our  young  men  to  travel 
or  study  in  Europe.  Many  of  his  pupils  can  call  to  mind,  that, 
on  informing  him  of  their  purpose  to  go  abroad,  they  received 
from  him  the  frank  avowal,  "  I  am  sorry  for  it.  The  chances 
are  that  you  will  be  ruined  by  it.  But  I  hope  not."  He  had 
never  been  abroad.  When  he  was  most  free  to  go,  he  had  no 
desire  to  do  so.  He  was  an  American  result  of  modified  Eng- 
lish antecedents.  A  true  peer  in  nature  and  mien,  unable  to 
make  himself  honestly  a  democrat,  he  schooled  himself  to  a 
special  discipleship  of  an  independent  republicanism.  He 
thought  that  he  and  his  country  had  got  all  of  good  that 
England  had  to  give ;  and  as  for  the  other  foreign  nationalities 
and  their  ways,  they  certainly  did  not  present  to  him  their 
enviable  side  or  qualities.  Coming  of  a  Puritan  lineage, 
through  an  ancestral  line  which  had  'discharged  the  trusts 
involved  in  the  developing  of  a  wilderness  colony  onward  to 
a  self-governed  commonwealth,  he  kept  strong  hold  of  the 
firm-set  pillars  of  the  fabric.  To  a  thoroughly  sincere  piety, 
and  a  most  reverential  tone  of  devotion,  he  joined  a  spirit  of 
independent  inquiry  and  a  demand  for  reasonable  convictions 
in  matters  of  religion.  No  layman  could  at  the  time  have  been 
set  over  the  University  who  could  better  than  himself  have 
softened  the  shock  or  the  reminder  of  the  change  in  usage 
and-  observance  from  a  clerical  headship. 

The  honors  and  labors  of  his  life  had  a  felicitous  consum- 
mation mingled  of  dignity  and  of  beauty.  It  presented  one 
of  those  very  rare  cases  in  which  providential  allotments, 
combined  with  human  conditions  and  the  peculiarities  of  a 
marked  individuality,  gathered  their  finest  garland  for  a  crown 
of  tranquil  and  revered  old  age.  This  afforded  opportunities 
for  the  mellowing  of  character,  for  the  turning  of  all  sternness 
into  a  self-searching  of  principles,  motives,  and  actions,  and 
for  the  vindication  before  all  critical  eyes  of  the  well-tried 
integrity  which  had  never  faltered.  The  last  decade  of  his 


JOSIAH   QUINCT.  17 

years  was  numbered,  one  by  one,  by  some  new  token  of  the 
deepening  interest  and  respect  of  our  whole  community.  His 
calendar,  as  it  advanced,  was  announced  in  the  papers.  The 
literary  and  oratorical  fruits  of  his  long  harvest  were  credited 
to  the  verification  of  his  own  theory,  that  the  way  in  which 
an  old  man  should  keep  his  mind  from  wearing  out  is  to 
keep  it  hard  at  work. 

He  had  hoped  that  he  might  live  to  see  the  end  of  this 
fearful  civil  strife  which  convulses  our  land,  and  which  so 
stirred  the  fire  of  his  noble  inborn,  high-taught  patriotism. 
But,  whether  or  not  that  should  be  so,  his  faith  outran  his 
hope ;  and  he  believed  that  it  could  have  but  one  possible 
end,  and  that  a  righteous  one,  leaving  us  still  a  nation,  but 
chastened  and  purified.  If  any  one  asked  him  of  the  cause 
and  purpose  of  the  war,  he  would  have  been  likely  to  have 
referred  his  questioner  to  certain  prophetic  utterances  of 
his  own  in  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  in  January, 
1811. 

A  full  serenity  of  scene  and  feeling  attended  his  release 
from  life,  by  that  rarest  of  all  human  experiences,  a  natural 
death,  as  the  ripe  fruit  falls  from  the  unshaken  bough  in  the 
still  air.  He  was  waiting  to  be  called,  and  was  just  beginning 
to  fear  delay  in  the  summons.  He  lived  at  last  for  simple 
rest,  and  musing  on  the  gleanings  of  thought  from  his  last 
readings  of  his  favorite  moralists  and  philosophers,  Cicero  and 
Lord  Bacon ;  trusting  his  memory  and  his  spirit  for  diviner 
nutriment.  To  the  end  he  read  and  wrote ;  and,  because  they 
were  the  last  transcript  from  his  pen,  he  has  enhanced  the 
sweet  and  gracious  piety  of  the  lines  of  Addison,  which  he 
copied  as  his  hand  was  losing  its  cunning:  — 

"  When  all  thy  mercies,  0  my  God! 

My  rising  soul  surveys, 
Transported  with  the  view,  I'm  lost 
In  wonder,  love,  and  praise." 


18  MASSACHUSETTS   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY. 

Dying  in  Quincy,  receiving  funeral  honors  in  Boston,  borne 
to  his  grave  through  Cambridge,  and  resting  now  on  the  slope 
of  Harvard  Hill  in  Mount  Auburn,  the  closing  scenes  covered 
those  of  his  life's  labor  and  happiness.  We  may  share  his 
own  strong  hope  of  immortality,  and  believe  that  his  life  is 
rounded  by  something  better  than  a  sleep. 

Mr.  EVERETT,  in  rising  to  second  the  resolutions  of  Dr. 
Ellis,  said, — 

I  have  been  requested,  Mr.  President,  by  the  Standing 
Committee,  to  second  the  resolutions  offered  by  Dr.  Ellis ;  and 
I  do  it  with  the  greatest  pleasure,  although  his  carefully  pre- 
pared, just,  and  eloquent  analysis  of  President  Quincy's  cha- 
racter, and  your  own  pertinent,  feeling,  and  most  impressive 
address,  have  left  me  little  to  say.  An  opportunity  will  per- 
haps be  afforded  me  next  week  of  paying  a  tribute  to  his 
memory  in  another  place ;  but  I  must  ask  your  indulgence  for 
a  few  moments  at  this  time,  to  give  utterance  to  the  feelings 
which  we  all  share,  and  which  have  been  so  eloquently 
expressed  by  the  gentlemen  who  have  preceded  me. 

You  have,  Mr.  President,  justly  intimated  the  reasons  for 
which  President  Quincy's  decease  should  be  noticed  in  the 
most  respectful  manner  within  these  walls.  He  became  a 
member  of  our  Society  in  early  life,  and  was  considerably  our 
senior  associate.  He  took  a  lively  interest  in  the  Society,  and 
missed  no  opportunity  of  promoting  its  welfare  ;  attending  its 
meetings  occasionally  down  to  the  last  months  of  his  pro- 
tracted life.  Besides  this,  lie  co-operated  with  the  Society  in 
its  appropriate  labors,  enriching  the  literature  of  the  country 
with  a  series  of  historical  works  of  high  and  recognized  value, 
two  of  them  prepared  at  the  instance  of  the  Society.  Still 
more,  sir,  it  may  be  truly  said,  that  he  not  only  wrote  history, 
but  made  it,  in  the  sphere  (and  that  a  most  diversified  and 
elevated  sphere)  in  which  he  moved ;  exhibiting  through  life 


JOSIAH   QUINCY.  19 

those  marked  qualities,  which,  by  sympathy,  infuse  moral 
strength  into  a  community,  and  animate  other  men  to  the 
efforts  by  which  individuals  and  nations  obtain  an  honorable 
place  in  the  annals  of  mankind. 

I  have  said,  sir,  that  President  Quincy's  historical  works 
had  a  high  recognized  value ;  and  most  certainly,  if  his  vigor- 
ous intellect,  methodical  studies,  his  untiring  industry,  and 
his  great  facility  of  labor,  had  borne  no  other  fruit,  the  series 
of  his  historical  publications  would  have  given  him,  though  not 
a  man  of  letters  by  profession,  a  most  respectable  place  among 
American  authors.  With  the  exception  of  Congressional 
speeches,  and  occasional  essays  on  the  topics  of  the  day,  his 
first  work  of  considerable  compass  was  prompted  at  once  by 
filial  affection  and  patriot  duty :  I  mean  the  Memoir  of  his 
honored  father,  one  of  the  most  distinguished  of  those  referred 
to  by  you,  sir,  who  prepared  the  minds  of  their  countrymen 
for  the  Revolution.  He  had  the  kindness  to  afford  me  an 
opportunity  of  perusing  it  in  manuscript.  It  was  appropriate- 
ly published  in  1825,  at  the  close  of  the  first  half-century.  It 
contained  the  journals  and  copies  of  some  of  the  letters  of 
the  lamented  subject  of  the  Memoir,  especially  those  written 
during  his  short  visit  to  England  in  1774-5,  —  the  last  year  of 
his  life ;  and  I  can  truly  say,  that  there  is  no  volume  which 
to  the  present  day  I  read  with  equal  interest  for  the  events 
of  that  memorable  year,  as  contemplated  by  an  eye-witness 
—  and  such  an  eye-witness  —  in  England.  He  had  the  ines- 
timable privilege  of  hearing  the  two  speeches  made  by  Lord 
Chatham,  on  the  20th  January,  1775,  declared  by  his  son, 
William  Pitt,  "  to  be  surely  the  two  finest  speeches  ever 
made,  unless  by  himself."  Of  these  speeches  Mr.  Quincy 
made  a  full  report  from  memory,  and  from  a  few  notes  he  was 
able  to  take  at  the  time.  It  is  in  some  parts  evidently  a 
more  accurate  report  than  that  published  by  Dodsley  in  1779, 
after  Lord  Chatham's  death,  from  notes  by  Hugh  Boyd. 


20  MASSACHUSETTS   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY. 

Portions  of  Mr.  Quincy's  report  were  published  in  Gordon's 
letters  on  the  Revolution ;  Mr.  Quincy's  papers  having  been 
placed  in  his  hands  while  composing  that  work.  The  last 
entry  in  Mr.  Quincy's  journal  is,  "  Had  great  satisfaction  in 
reading  my  report  of  the  debates  in  the  House  of  Lords  to 
one  or  two  friends  who  heard  them.  They  thought  them 
exceedingly  correct,  and  were  amazed  at  the  blunders,  omis- 
sions, and  misrepresentations  of  the  printed  accounts."  Presi- 
dent Quincy's  Memoir  of  his  father  also  contains  the  journal 
of  a  visit  made  by  him  to  Charleston,  S.C.,in  1773,  and  which 
is  of  extreme  interest.  This  youthful  patriot,  as  you  have 
stated,  sir,  died  on  the  return  voyage  from  Europe,  and  within 
sight  of  the  granite  cliffs  of  New  England ;  young  in  years 
alone,  mature  in  wisdom,  patriotism,  and  public  service. 
When  we  reflect  that  he  was  taken  from  the  country  at  the 
age  of  thirty-one,  we  cannot  suppress  the  thought,  that  a 
gracious  compensation  was  designed  by  Providence  in  pro- 
longing the  years  of  the  son  to  thrice  that  duration. 

The  History  of  the  University  is  next  in  order  of  time, 
as  it  is  the  most  voluminous  and  elaborate  of  President 
Quincy's  works.  It  was  suggested  by  the  duty  which  de- 
volved upon  him  on  the  memorable  occasion  of  the  second 
centennial  anniversary  of  the  institution.  It  was  obviously, 
on  the  part  of  the  President,  a  work  at  once  of  affection  and 
duty.  It  embodies  all  those  portions  of  the  records  of  the 
University  which  throw  light  on  its  general  history ;  on  its 
feeble  but  hopeful  beginnings ;  its  gradual  development  in  the 
succeeding  generations  and  in  the  last  century  ;  its  rapid 
expansion  in  the  present  century.  It  exhibits  the  noble 
steadiness  with  which  Old  Harvard  has  maintained  itself 
through  the  storms  of  two  centuries,  and  its  re-active  influ- 
ence on  the  public  opinion  of  the  country.  Especial  pains  was 
taken  by  President  Quincy  to  do  justice  to  the  characters  of 
the  distinguished  benefactors  and  patrons  of  the  College,  from 


JOSIAH   QUINCY.  21 

the  ever-memorable  Harvard  to  the  present  day.  These  and 
other  pertinent  and  kindred  topics  are  treated  in  his  History 
in  appropriate  detail,  according  to  their  respective  interest 
and  importance,  in  a  clear  and  vigorous,  and,  when  the  topic 
admitted,  eloquent  style  of  idiomatic  English;  the  whole 
forming  a  repository,  which,  next  to  the  original  records  them- 
selves, will  constitute  the  standard  authority  for  the  history 
of  the  institution,  till  its  prosperous  growth,  as  we  may  hope, 
through  two  more  centuries,  shall  require  other  volumes  and 
other  dutiful  pens  to  record  its  multiplied  benefactors,  its 
extended  usefulness,  and  ever-growing  honors. 

President  Quincy's  next  historical  work  of  considerable 
compass,  in  the  order  of  publication,  was  the  History  of  the 
Town  and  City  of  Boston.  Like  the  History  of  the  University, 
this  work  grew  out  of  an  anniversary  discourse ;  viz.,  that 
which  he  delivered  at  the  second  centennial  anniversary  of  the 
city.  Supended  during  his  presidency  at  Cambridge,  its  prep- 
aration was  resumed  immediately  upon  his  resignation  of 
that  high  trust.  This  History,  like  that  of  the  College,  was 
truly  a  labor  of  love.  The  family  of  President  Quincy  had 
been  identified  with  Boston  from  the  foundation.  His  ances- 
tor came  over  with  John  Cotton ;  and  the  position  of  his 
descendants  had  been  maintained,  in  honor  and  influence, 
through  all  the  succeeding  generations.  His  father  had  taken 
an  active  part  in  all  the  memorable  occurrences  which  had 
turned  the  eyes  of  the  civilized  world  on  Boston  after  the  pas- 
sage of  the  Stamp  Act :  the  President  himself,  born  and  bred 
in  Boston,  had  represented  her  in  the  State  Legislature  and 
in  Congress  ;  and,  in  the  infancy  of  the  new  civic  organization, 
he  had  served  her  at  the  head  of  its  municipality  for  six  years. 
Thus  was  he  eminently  a  Bostonian  of  the  Bostonians.  The 
chief  part  of  the  work  is  naturally  devoted  to  an  account  of 
the  writer's  administration,  and  of  the  series  of  measures  rela- 
tive to  its  public  buildings,  its  markets,  the  eleemosynary 


22  MASSACHUSETTS   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY. 

establishments,  the  fire-department,  the  schools,  and  other 
municipal  interests,  in  which  the  public  spirit,  the  executive 
ability,  and  moral  courage,  displayed  by  Mayor  Quincy,  cannot 
fail  to  awaken  at  once  the  admiration  and  gratitude  of  the 
citizens  of  Boston. 

In  1845  appeared  the  revised  edition  of  Graham's  "  History 
of  the  United  States."  It  was  published  under  the  superin- 
tendence of  a  committee  of  the  Historical  Society,  consisting 
of  President  Quincy  and  two  or  three  other  respected  mem- 
bers. The  first  volume  of  this  work  contained  a  Memoir  of 
James  Graham,  prepared,  in  compliance  with  a  resolution 
of  the  Society,  by  Mr.  Quincy,  and  embodying  all  that  is  per- 
sonally known  of  a  writer  who  cherished  a  warm  and  consist- 
ent affection  for  this  country,  and  did  more  than  any  other 
foreigner  to  extend  the  knowledge  of  it  abroad. 

In  1847,  and  being  then  at  the  advanced  age  of  seventy- 
five,  Mr.  Quincy,  at  the  request  of  the  late  Mr.  R.  G.  Shaw, 
prepared  for  publication  the  journals  of  their  kinsman,  Major 
Samuel  Shaw,  with  a  Memoir  of  his  life.  This  most  excellent 
gentleman  not  only  served  with  great  credit  through  the 
whole  Revolutionary  War,  receiving  at  its  close  an  emphatic 
testimonial  from  Washington,  but  he  sailed  in  the  vessel  which 
opened  the  trade  to  China,  as  the  agent  of  an  association  of 
capitalists  formed  for  that  purpose ;  and  was  appointed  first 
American  consul  to  Canton  under  the  old  confederation,  and 
afterwards  by  President  Washington.  President  Quincy's 
Memoir  is  a  highly  interesting  contribution  to  the  history  both 
of  the  Revolution  and  of  American  commerce,  a  just  tribute 
to  the  memory  of  a  man  of  sterling  merit,  and  well  worthy  the 
pen  of  the  distinguished  writer. 

The  year  1847  was  signalized  by  the  death  of  John 
Quincy  Adams  at  the  post  of  duty,  and  in  the  capital  of  the 
United  States.  He  was  the  distant  relative,  the  neighbor, 
the  contemporary,  the  confidential  friend,  of  Mr.  Quincy;  and, 


JOSIAH  QUINCY.  23 

at  the  request  of  our  Society,  the  duty  of  paying  the  last 
tribute  of  respect  to  the  memory  of  the  illustrious  departed 
devolved  on  him.  Pie  readily  accepted  the  trust;  and,  instead 
of  confining  himself  within  the  limits  of  a  Memoir  of  the  ordi- 
nary length,  he  drew  up  a  volume  of  more  than  four  hundred 
pages,  embracing  a  comprehensive  history  of  the  life  and  ser- 
vices of  Mr.  Adams.  The  work  did  not  make  its  appearance 
till  the  year  1858,  when  the  venerable  author  was  in  his 
eighty-seventh  year.  I  recollect  no  other  instance  in  this 
country  of  so  large  a  work  from  a  person  so  far  stricken  in 
years;  but  I  perceive  in  it  no  abatement  of  intellectual 
power.  In  a  modest  prefatory  note,  it  is  stated  to  be  the 
object  of  the  writer  to  narrate  the  political  life  of  Mr.  Adams 
from  his  published  works,  from  authentic  unpublished  ma- 
terials and  personal  acquaintance,  and  in  this  way  to  make 
him  the  expositor  of  his  own  motives,  principles,  and  charac- 
ter, in  the  spirit  neither  of  criticism  nor  eulogy.  This  diffi- 
cult and  delicate  task  was  performed  by  the  venerable  author 
with  signal  success ;  and  with  this  the  series  of  his  elaborate 
historical  efforts  closes.  I  need  not  say,  that,  with  his  other 
occasional  literary  labors,  —  several  of  which,  such  as  the 
History  of  the  Boston  Athenaeum,  which  I  ought  to  have 
included  in  the  series,  were  of  a  nature  to  require  no  little 
time  and  research  in  their  preparation,  —  they  form  what 
would,  in  almost  any  case,  be  considered  the  life-work  of  an 
industrious  man.  But,  till  his  retirement  from  the  presidency 
of  Harvard  at  the  age  of  seventy-three,  Mr.  Quincy's  literary 
labors  must  have  been  all  prepared  in  the  brief  intervals  of 
leisure  allowed  by  engrossing  official  duties  and  cares.  While, 
therefore,  they  would  have  given  him  an  enviable  reputation 
had  he  been  exclusively  or  even  mainly  a  man  of  letters,  it 
must  be  remembered,  that,  in  his  case,  the  writer  was  over- 
shadowed by  the  active  relations  —  political,  judicial,  muni- 
cipal, and  academic  —  in  which  he  stood  to  his  day  and 


24  MASSACHUSETTS   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY. 

generation.  On  these  I  need  not  attempt  to  dwell:  but  when 
we  consider  that  Mr.  Quincy  was  for  years,  and  with  a  brilliant 
reputation  both  for  business  and  debate,  the  representative 
of  Boston,  both  in  the  State  Legislature  and  in  Congress, 
an  acknowledged  leader  of  the  political  party  to  which  he 
belonged ;  that,  as  a  judge,  his  term  of  office,  though  short, 
was  signalized  by  a  most  memorable  decision,  relative  to  the 
law  of  libel ;  that,  as  Mayor  of  Boston  for  six  years,  —  an  office 
assumed  under  all  the  difficulties  of  the  transition  state  to 
which  Dr.  Ellis  has  alluded,  —  his  administration  was  dis- 
tinguished for  the  most  important  improvements  and  reforms  ; 
and  lastly,  that,  with  great  acceptance  and  public  favor,  he 
presided  over  the  oldest  literary  institution  in  the  country, 
bringing  to  the  arduous  and  responsible  station  a  variety  of 
qualifications,  administrative  and  literary,  intellectual  and 
moral,  rarely  if  ever  combined  in  one  man,  and  most  certainly 
never  surpassed ;  and  that,  having  in  an  advanced  but  vigor- 
ous age  become  emeritus  in  this  long  and  honorable  career, 
instead  of  indulging  in  the  repose  conceded  to  the  decline  of 
life,  he  continued  for  twenty  years,  by  word  and  deed,  to  per- 
form all  the  duties  of  an  active  patriot,  vigilant  for  the  public 
weal,  jealous  for  the  public  honor,  and  full  of  courage  and  confi- 
dence in  the  darkest  hours  of  the  present  tremendous  struggle ; 
adding,  finally,  to  all  his  other  titles  of  respect  and  honor,  the 
authority  which  length  of  years,  attended  with  virtue  and 
wisdom,  can  alone  confer, — we  must  all  feel,  we  do  all  feel,  as 
we  gather  round  the  grave  of  President  Quincy,  that  we  have 

lost  OUr  FIEST  CITIZEN. 

Mr.  Everett  was  followed  by  the  Hon.  RICHARD  H. 
DANA,  Jun.,  who  spoke  as  follows:  — 

Mr.  PRESIDENT,  —  I  have  received  from  the  Standing  Com- 
mittee a  request  to  say  a  few  words  on  this  occasion,  —  a 


JOSIAH   QUINCY.  25 

privilege  which  I  suppose  I  owe  rather  to  a  family  friendship 
with  the  honored  deceased  than  certainly  to  any  personal 
claims.  It  is  hardly  for  me  to  speak  of  one,  who  had  lived 
nearly  his  half-century  before  I  was  born,  in  the  presence  of 
so  many  who  knew  him  so  much  longer  and  more  intimately 
than  I  can  claim  to  have  done,  though  he  honored  me  beyond 
my  deserts.  Before  such  an  assembly  as  this,  sir,  I  shall 
attempt  no  more  than  to  notice  one  characteristic  of  Mr. 
Quincy ;  and,  as  to  that,  rather  to  speak  of  the  effect  he 
always  produced  upon  me,  than  to  offer  an  opinion  or  analysis 
of  his  mental  constitution. 

Mr.  Quincy  was  a  nobleman.  He  filled  out  our  ideal  of  what 
the  nobleman  should  be  where  nobles  or  conscript  fathers 
rule  in  society  and  in  the  State.  He  had  the  merits,  and  he 
partook  somewhat  of  the  defects,  of  that  character.  He  was 
favored  by  nature  with  the  front,  the  station,  the  voice,  the 
manner,  that  should  belong  to  the  nobleman ;  and,  still  more, 
he  had  in  his  soul  the  true  temper  of  nobility.  His  was 
a  lofty,  high-toned  character,  —  some  perhaps  would  say,  a 
proud  and  rather  high-strung  temper.  Honored  members 
have  just  told  us,  and  told  us  with  eloquence,  and  fulness 
of  detail,  of  his  fidelity  to  all  duties,  his  integrity,  and  his 
laboriousness.  It  is  for  me  only  to  tread  this  narrow  path, 
beset  with  delicacies,  and  to  recall  to  myself  and  you  the 
high-spirited,  chivalrous  gentleman.  Thackeray  says  that 
the  "  grand  manner "  has  gone  out.  It  had  not  gone  out 
with  us  while  Mr.  Quincy  lived.  A  boy  at  school,  when 
he  came  to  Cambridge,  I  met  a  man  in  the  street,  who,  I  felt 
sure  from  his  style,  must  be  Mr.  Quincy,  and  raised  my  hat  to 
him,  and  received  a  most  gracious  bow  in  return.  It  was 
he ;  and  he  could  be  recognized  anywhere  by  any  one  on  the 
look-out  for  a  high  character  among  the  highest. 

A  good  deal  has  been  said  to-day,  and  well  said,  of 
the  spirit  of  liberty  that  inspired  his  father,  and  rested 

4 


26  MASSACHUSETTS   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY. 

on  the  son.  I  do  not  doubt  or  mean  to  disparage  devotion  to 
the  liberties  of  all  human  beings;  but  there  was  in  the  men 
of  that  day  a  love  of  independence,  that  was  no  small  element 
among  the  causes  of  our  Revolution.  Remember,  brethren, 
that  we  were  provincials,  —  governed  by  a  class  of  crowned, 
coroneted,  and  mitred  men  living  in  another  hemisphere,  in 
whose  privileges  and  dignities  we  could  have  no  part.  I  can 
conceive  of  men  with  little  or  no  aversion  to  such  dignities 
in  their  own  State,  and  with  little  confidence  in  political 
equality,  rising  in  indignant  resistance  to  such  a  subordina- 
tion as  that.  It  was  that  proud  devotion  to  independence 
that  Burke  said  united  the  holders  of  slaves  in  a  common 
cause  with  the  free  North.  After  our  independence  was 
secured,  when  the  conflict  raged  over  half  the  world,  between 
the  radical  philosophy  of  the  French  revolutionists  and  the 
conservative  philosophy  of  Burke  and  England,  the  sym- 
pathies of  many,  of  most,  of  our  highest  patriots  in  New 
England,  were  with  the  latter. 

Mr.  Quincy  told  me,  not  long  before  his  death,  that  he  had 
the  means  of  proving,  from  the  private  "letters  and  journals 
of  the  patriots  who  formed  our  Constitution  and  set  it  in 
motion,  that  their  chief  apprehension  for  its  permanency  was 
from  what  they  feared  would  prove  to  be  the  incompatibility 
between  the  two  classes  of  men,  the  two  systems  of  society 
they  would  represent,  who  must  control  its  policy  and  pa- 
tronage. They  feared  an  antagonism  in  a  republic  of  equals, 
—  between  what  was  substantially  an  oligarchy,  founded  on 
slavery,  and  the  free,  mixed  classes  of  the  North.  It  was  the 
more  dangerous,  because  it  was  sectional  and  absolutely 
restricted.  There  was  a  sectional  class,  an  aristocracy,  or 
whatever  else  you  may  call  it,  with  which  the  people  of  the 
Northern  States  could  take  no  part,  excluded  by  their  moral 
convictions  and  by  geographical  laws.  That  this  slavery, 
which  met  their  intellectual  disapproval  and  their  moral 


JOSIAH   QUINCY.  27 

aversion,  was  a  matter  of  State  control  and  responsibility,  was 
not  enough.  They  feared  that  it  would  generate  an  aristo- 
cratic spirit,  which  would  tell  on  the  national  life  and  national 
politics.  They  saw  that  it  tended  to  foster  an  arrogating 
political  class.  They  knew  that  oligarchal  classes,  with  their 
interests,  maxims,  and  sympathies,  had  often  governed  the 
world.  They  feared  that  the  antagonism,  the  incompati- 
bility, between  these  classes  and  interests,  would  lead  to  a 
separation  ;  the  weaker  section,  whichever  that  might  prove 
to  be,  striking  for  its  independence,  —  a  separation  made  the 
easier  by  the  fact,  that  the  systems  were  separated  by  a  geo- 
graphical line.  When  I  told  him  that  I  did  not  remember 
this  in  the  published  writings  of  that  day,  his  answer  was, 
that  they  earnestly  desired  a  union  for  our  strength  and  preser- 
vation, and  kept  out  of  public  discussion  the  tender  points ; 
but  that  I  would  find  it  in  their  letters  and  journals. 

I  allude  to  these  subjects,  Mr.  President  and  brethren,  I 
beseech  you  to  believe,  in  an  assembly  of  gentlemen  of  all 
shades  of  opinion,  only  because  they  explain  the  political 
course  of  Mr.  Quiricy ;  at  least,  in  my  opinion,  throw  some 
light  upon  it. 

It  was  Mr.  Quincy's  belief,  —  I  do  not  wish  to  say  here,  on 
this  occasion,  and  before  you,  whether  it  was  a  true  or  an 
unsound  opinion;  take  it  either  way,  —  it  was  his  opinion, 
that  such  an  antagonism,  such  a  growing  incompatibility, 
existed  from  the  first,  and  culminated  gradually  to  the  end. 
It  was  his  belief,  that  the  struggle,  between  the  Federal  and 
Democratic  parties  was,  to  no  small  degree,  a  struggle  be- 
tween these  interests.  True,  the  lines  were  hot  so  drawn. 
Most  of  the  questions  and  the  issues  framed  were  purely 
political ;  but  he  believed  the  overthrow  of  the  Federal 
party,  and  the  installation  of  the  Virginia  dynasty,  was  a  suc- 
cess to  the  slaveholding  class,  since  which  the  education  and 
property  of  New  England  have  never  had  their  share  in  the 


28  MASSACHUSETTS   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY. 

government,  unless  in  exceptional  cases,  and  sometimes  upon 
what  may  be  called  special  terms. 

Mr.  Quincy  thought  that  the  contest  of  1820,  on  the  admis- 
sion of  Missouri,  was  substantially  a  contest  between  these 
classes  and  interests,  and  ended,  as  before,  in  a  substantial 
success  of  the  sectional,  oligarchal  system.  Such,  too,  he 
believed  to  be,  and  with  similar  results,  the  struggle  of  1850, 
on  the  admission  of  California ;  and  such  the  final  struggle 
of  1860,  the  first  practical  defeat  of  that  class. 

Now,  sir,  Mr.  Quincy,  so  believing,  so  feeling,  to  the 
depth  of  his  being,  was  not  of  a  temper  to  acquiesce  in 
that  subordination.  His  independent  spirit  was  enforced  by 
the  moral  aversion  he  had  for  the  system  on  which  that 
dominant  class  founded  its  power.  He  could  not  bow  to  it. 
No:  he  feared,  in  the  critical  winter  of  1860-61,  but  one 
result.  That  was  not  peaceable  dissolution ;  it  was  not  war. 
He  feared  only  some  compromise  by  which  the  slaveholding 
class,  with  its  maxims  and  interests,  should  gain  a  permanent, 
social,  and  political  ascendency  over  the  free,  mixed  classes 
of  the  North.  That  was  the  one  result  he  could  not  bear. 
Against  that  he  would  have  been  willing  to  rebel.  Rather 
than  that,  he  would  have  seen  the  Union,  much  as  he  loved 
and  valued  it,  rent  in  twain,  or  severed  into  as  many  parts 
as  it  might  please  God  to  divide  it. 

You  will  remember,  sir,  that  I  am  not  presenting  the 
highest  view  of  Mr.  Quincy's  character.  I  know  he  loved 
the  largest  liberty.  He  not  only  advocated,  —  that  is  cheap, 
—  he  labored  for,  the  greatest  good  of  the  greatest  number. 
He  saw  in  the  present  struggle  far  more  and  greater  things 
than  the  political  emancipation  of  the  North  from  the  control 
of  a  sectional  dynasty. 

Mr.  Quincy  loved  public  life,  public  duties,  and  public 
station.  It  is  the  more  to  his  credit,  that  he  never  bowed, 
never  swerved,  —  nay,  was  never  suspected  of  bowing  or 


JOSIAH  QUINCY.  29 

swerving, — to  mere  popular  opinion.  He  paid  little  respect  to 
mere  numbers  on  a  question  of  right  and  wrong.  His  creed 
admitted  no  such  blasphemy  as  that  the  voice  of  the  majority 
is  the  voice  of  God.  Perhaps,  indeed,  his  gallant  spirit  took 
a  little  secret,  unacknowledged  satisfaction  in  being  in  a 
brave  minority.  To  no  one  may  both  parts  of  Lord  Mans- 
field's celebrated  declaration  be  better  applied  than  to  him : 
"  I  love  popularity ;  but  it  is  that  popularity  which  follows, 
not  that  which  is  run  after." 

I  do  not  know,  Mr.  President,  what  may  be  the  custom  of 
this  Society  on  occasions  like  the  present.  I  do  not  know 
whether  you  ever  present  to  yourselves  here  the  reverse  of 
any  picture  of  a  deceased  brother,  —  whether  you  ever  exam- 
ine here  the  weaving  of  the  tapestry  behind,  by  which  the 
best  eifects  are  produced.  But  as  I  am,  and  have  always 
been,  an  unfeigned  admirer,  devotee,  of  the  heroic  qualities 
of  Mr.  Quincy,  perhaps  I  can  the  better  touch  upon  what  may 
be  brought  forward  elsewhere,  and  what  may  have  been  con- 
sidered in  his  lifetime,  as  defects. 

I  do  not  know  what  is  the  definition  of  bigotry.  We  ordi- 
narily associate  it  with  inquisitions  and  tortures ;  but  I  sup- 
pose it  means  only  an  undue  confidence  in  and  devotion  to 
our  opinions,  and  is  consistent  with  entire  kindness,  and 
desire  to  do  justice.  In  that  scientific  sense,  if  any  one  who 
has  differed  from  Mr.  Quincy,  and  has  felt  the  shock  of  his 
collision,  the  congressus  AcJiilli,  should  complain  that  he  was 
severe,  and  even  bigoted,  I  should  say,  that  the  manliest 
course  was  to  admit,  that,  in  that  sense,  there  might  be  some 
ground  for  the  charge,  and  to  set  it  down  as  one  of  the 
infirmities  of  a  great  character,  —  one  of  those  terms  upon 
which  alone,  in  our  imperfect  condition  here,  we  can  obtain 
such  a  fellowship  and  example.  The  denomination  known 
among  us  as  the  Orthodox  Congregationalist  have  objected 
that  his  "  History  of  Harvard  University  "  has  not  done  them 


30  MASSACHUSETTS   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY. 

and  their  colleges  justice  in  their  relations  to  Harvard.  I  have 
never  read  either  side,  and  have  no  opinion  on  the  question ; 
but  I  have  been  told  by  good  judges,  partial  to  Mr.  Quincy 
and  his  side,  that  the  complaint  is  not  without  foundation. 
Such  was  his  affection  for  Harvard  and  its  supporters,  such 
his  convictions  in  its  favor,  that  he  did  not  see  readily  the 
qualifications  and  objections.  Was  it  not  so,  too,  in  political 
contests  ?  I  am  inclined  to  think  we  must  admit  that  it 
sometimes  was.  But,  having  been  thus  frank  and  candid,  I 
claim  the  right,  in  return,  to  remind  you  what  these  imper- 
fections were,  and  from  what  they  sprung.  They  sprung 
from  no  ill  nature,  no  indifference  to  the  rights  or  feelings  of 
others,  but  from  the  depth  and  heartiness  of  his  convictions. 

Burke  would  not  see  —  he  could  not  see  —  Charles  James 
Fox,  though  on  his  death-bed,  much  as  he  loved  him.  "Why? 
Burke  was  so  convinced  that  the  French  political  philosophy, 
to  which  Fox  had  lent  the  aid  of  his  great  influence,  was 
dangerous  to  social  morals,  and  the  vary  existence  of  any 
respectable  body  politic,  that  he  could  not  dissever  the  man 
from  the  opinion.  It  is  easy  to  say,  that  we  must  separate 
ourselves  and  others  from  our  and  their  opinions.  Perhaps 
superhuman  beings  would  do  so.  If  opinions  are  mere  in- 
tellectual tenets,  or  if  they  are  the  cards  with  which  we  play 
the  game  of  life,  it  were  easy.  Those  men  will  find  no  diffi- 
culty in  doing  that,  with  whom  opinions  on  vital  questions  of 
our  relations  to  God  and  man,  and  the  welfare  of  all  here  and 
hereafter,  are  no  more  than  opinions  on  natural  science  or 
geographical  statistics.  If  men  are  conscious,  that,  in  them- 
selves, there  is  no  connection  between  their  souls,  their 
characters,  their  entire  natures,  and  their  opinions,  it  is  inex- 
cusable in  them  not  to  make  the  distinction  in  dealing  with 
other  men  who  differ  from  them.  But,  with  Mr.  Quincy, 
opinions  on  vital  questions  were  convictions.  The}7  took 
deep  root  in  his  nature.  They  were  inseparable  from  all  he 


JOSIAH  QUINCY.  31 

valued  or  feared  in  himself?  and  all  he  respected  or  distrusted 
in  others.  They  might  turn  out  to  be  right  or  wrong ;  but 
they  were  drawn  from  the  past,  and  bore  upon  the  highest 
duties  of  mankind  in  the  present,  and  the  destinies  of  man- 
kind in  the  future.  They  might  be  right  or  wrong  at  last ; 
but  to  him  they  were  truths,  and  he  treated  them  accord- 
ingly. To  his  final  convictions  on  vital  questions,  he  was 
ready  to  sacrifice  all,  —  even  life.  How  could  he  treat  them 
lightly?  With  such  a  character,  on  such  questions,  we  need 
not  fear  to  meet  complaints  from  those  who  have  encountered 
him  front  to  front,  —  that  he  was  severe,  or  even  bigoted. 
We  have  little  sympathy  with  those  complaints  when  they 
come  from  men  who  met  his  scorn  or  rebuke  for  civil  coward- 
ice, or  dereliction  of  duty. 

It  has.  been  said  that  he  was  not  a  wise  political  leader. 
He  certainly  showed  wise  forecast  in  his  own  affairs,  and  in 
those  of  the  city  and  university.  In  politics,  he  saw  clearly 
into  general  principles  ;  and,  in  many  respects,  divined  remote 
consequences.  Still,  I  confess,  I  should  not  like  to  promise 
myself  or  my  party  unreservedly  to  his  guidance  on  the 
policies  of  the  day  and  hour.  Perhaps  the  combination  of 
qualities  in  his  nature,  not  easy  to  analyze,  made  him  far- 
sighted,  and  not  good  at  near  sight.  Perhaps  his  tempera- 
ment did  not  admit  of  his  dealing  with  men  and  measures  as 
the  policy  of  political  management  requires. 

If  I  have  erred  in  noticing  these  qualifications  or  defici- 
encies in  his  constitution,  it  is  a  great  gratification  to  believe 
that  in  them  I  have  noticed  all  the  objections  that  have  ever 
been  made  against  him.  What  brighter  eulogy  could  I  pass 
upon  Mr.  Quincy  than  to  say,  that  after  a  life  spent  in  the 
severest  conflicts  of  municipal,  academical,  state,  and  national 
life,  in  which  he  had  much  ungracious  work  to  do,  no  charge 
has  ever  been  made  against  him?  I  honestly  say,  I  never 
heard  of  any,  affecting  in  any  way  his  private  or  public 


235078 


32  MASSACHUSETTS   HISTOKICAL   SOCIETY. 

character,  which  I  have  not  touched  upon  to-day,  and  before 
you,  his  friends. 

I  would  not  underrate  or  gloss  over,  still  less  try  to  ren- 
der attractive,  imperfections,  however  usually  attending  lofty 
natures.  But,  if  we  regard  the  common  opinion  of  mankind, 
they  are  not  those  that  the  ordinary  New-England  character 
most  needs  to  be  guarded  against.  The  philosophy  of  Benja- 
min Franklin  has  done  too  much  towards  lowering  the  tone 
of  the  youth  —  I  should  rather  say,  of  the  partially  educated 
youth  —  of  New  England.  Franklin  deserved,  sir,  the  statue 
you  helped  to  raise  to  him,  and  the  eloquent  oration  with 
which  you  inaugurated  it ;  for  he  did  great  things  for  science, 
and  rendered  great  services  to  his  country  in  her  struggle 
for  independence.  He  brought  to  the  aid  of  his  country 
sagacity,  energy,  and  patience,  and  shed  much  honor  on  our 
infant  name.  But  take  from  Benjamin  Franklin  what  he  did 
for  science  and  the  independence  of  his  country,  and  try  him 
alone  upon  his  philosophy,  and  maxims  for  life,  and  I  would 
rather,  a  thousand  times  rather,  that  any  one  in  whose  veins 
ran  my  blood,  that  any  —  all  the  youth  of  New  England  — 
should  look  to  the  example  of  Josiah  Quincy  than  to  that  of 
Benjamin  Franklin. 

Mr.  President,  among  all  the  true  and  gratifying  commen- 
dations that  have  been  and  will  be  passed  upon  Mr.  Quincy, 
I  trust  we  shall  not  overlook  nor  keep  in  the  background, 
but  always  put  foremost,  those  qualities  which  made  him  the 
heroic,  lofty  gentleman. 

The  resolutions  were  then  unanimously  adopted. 


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